A midweek email from M.S. Rau Antiques on Royal Street heralded the reopening of the store and a return to business as usual in the Big Easy.

Merely days before, with phone lines still unreliable, it had been impossible to reach more than a handful of Royal Street’s antique dealers, and they were in places as far removed as California and New York. So, it came as something of a surprise to learn that antiquarians who had encamped with families and friends closer to home had quietly been commuting from nearby towns, one even sleeping in his shop, to begin the task of rebuilding their businesses.

Proprietors of The French Antique Shop, Keil’s Antiques, Moss Antiques, Royal Antiques, James H. Cohen & Sons and M.S. Rau took stock of their individual losses and said the greatest was the loss of business.

Getting up and running, contacting customers, shipping out pre-Katrina orders, finding housing for displaced personnel, getting a head start on starting over – these are the priorities now. They are the hope of the porters and warehousemen who removed boards from windows and swept away the remnants of the hurricane.

Containers that had been diverted twice appeared on the strangely vacant landscape and were unloaded. On Thursday, October 5, banks of crystal chandeliers began to sparkle for the first time in more than a month, lighting the night as they have for nearly a hundred years.

Sadly, few visitors took notice. There are still no tourists in New Orleans. Beyond the boundaries of the French quarter, the city is a wasteland.

At the French Antique Shop, Henry Granet, Marc Freidlander and Nicole Granet Freidlander lit by the glow of chandeliers.

The plan is for the French Quarter to become the hub fromwhich business emanates. It is a plan that positions the RoyalStreet dealers squarely at the forefront of the New Orleansrenaissance.

Yet the shops that are still boarded are grim reminder there is much to be done. Ida Manheim, said from California that she opened Ida Manheim Antiques around October 12. Arthur Harris, of Arthur Harris Antiques, also plans an opening in the near future.

Only Chuck Robinson of Robinson Antiques is hedging, saying that the extensive damage to his French Quarter home and his involvement in a nightclub venture, Napoleon’s Itch, take precedent.

According to Marc Freidlander, of The French Antique Shop, there is loose talk among dealers of creating a cooperative mailing to let customers, most of whom are out-of-staters, know Royal Street is alive and eager for their business. Bonnie Warren, PR person for the Royal Street Guild, an antique retailer’s association, stated that television crews have promised to cover Royal Street.

Technology too is making its impact on the few businesses that eschewed it when business was good. James H. Cohen & Son’s and Rothschild’s Antiques have both mounted websites in the past week.

No one contacted for this article expected to see tourists for two months; many more thought it would be at least six months. Others predicted the return to normal would take at least year.

Until that is determined, no one is going to break the mold, though some will try to stretch it.

Bill Rau, president of M.S. Rau and perhaps the most aggressive marketer of the group, is looking to New York to give an added boost to his sales. Lent berth at 84 University Place, in the Charles Cherriff Galleries, Rau opened the New York showroom on October 10.